Social Psychology Commons^™

An Empirical Investigation Into The Role That Boredom, Relationships, Anxiety, And Gratification (Brag) Play In A Driver’S Decision To Text, Nathan White

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Texting while driving is a growing problem that has serious, and sometimes fatal, consequences. Despite laws enacted to curb this behavior, the problem continues to grow. Discovering factors that can reduce such risky behavior can significantly contribute to research, as well as save lives and reduce property damage. This study developed a model to explore the motivations that cause a driver to send messages. The model evaluates the effects that boredom, social relationships, social anxiety, and social gratification (BRAG) have upon a driver’s frequency of typing text messages. In addition, the perceived severity of the consequences and the presence of …

Interactional Practices And Artifact Orientation In Mobile Augmented Reality Game Play, Steven L. Thorne, John Hellermann, Adam Jones, Daniel Lester

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

In an effort to better understand the ways that small groups use digital technology as they move through a physical environment, this paper describes the methods used by groups of three people to maintain a group participation structure as they accomplish a quest-type task during mobile augmented reality game play. The game was available on one mobile digital device (an Apple iPhone) that was shared by three players as they negotiated a set of point-to-point route finding tasks. Video-recordings of each group were made using three cameras (two head-mounted cameras and one hand-held camera). We focus on the different ways …

Does Humor Promote Cognitive Flexibility By Way Of Its Affective And Cognitive Components? : A Prospective Test, Stuart Jenkins Daman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Two studies tested hypotheses regarding the idea that humor promotes cognitive flexibility. Two components of humor are argued to promote cognitive flexibility. First, the positive emotion associated with humor may enhance cognitive flexibility. Second, the processing of humor may exercise complex cognitive processing, thus making similar processing more efficient on subsequent tasks. Participants in Experiment 1 read humorous sentences or one of two types of non-humorous sentences. Participants in Experiment 2 viewed captioned images that varied in the presence of positivity and incongruity. Results of both studies do not support the idea that humor promotes cognitive flexibility, nor do they …

The Disparity Of Racial Diversity In Counselor Education And Supervision, Sharon Hammett Webb

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In general, doctoral programs in counselor education and supervision (CES) have low minority enrollments. Faculty members in clinical mental health counseling (CMHC) master's degree in science (MS) programs primarily come from CES doctoral programs; therefore, faculty members do not generally reflect the diversity of the MS student population. Using the theory of planned behavior and the bioecological model, the purpose of this research was to determine the extent to which age, gender, faculty support, income, level of parents' or primary caregivers' education, and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditation status predict White and racial …

The Importance Of Restraint In Gauging The Effects Of Ego Depletion On Alcohol Motivation, Danielle B. Allen

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Despite increased awareness of complications, the use and abuse of alcohol remains a problem in the United States. With regard to drinking, individuals encounter situations in which they must maintain a balance between temptation to drink and the need to regulate alcohol intake. Maintaining this balance requires the use of self-control. For this reason, lack of self-control has been implicated a potential influence on excessive alcohol consumption. The Strength Model of Self-Control (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007) posits that self-control draws on a limited resource that becomes depleted following repeated use. The term “ego depletion” is used to refer to …

Invisible Suffering: Practitioner Reflections On Peacebuilding Programs With Youth Exposed To Traumatic Stressors In Intergroup Conflict, Liza Hester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, the international community has recognized that youth are some of the most vulnerable to mental and emotional distress within the intractable and cyclical nature of identity-based violent conflict. Exposure to traumatic stressors within these intergroup conflicts poses unique risks not only to the neurological and social development of youth, but also to the capacities of youth to fully participate in peacebuilding interventions. The peacebuilding field has yet to strongly consider how traumatic stress affects dynamics within programs for youth and how these programs may need to modify expectations of youth’s cognitive, social, and emotional functioning to account for …

Race Ethnicity & Youth Perception Of School Safety, Sterling Jose Jackson

Wayne State University Theses

This study investigates how race/ethnicity, sex, and age influence students' perceptions of school safety. Students' perception of being safe and their concerns about violence while attending school are paramount to academic and social development. In a national survey teens were queried regarding various subject matters. The type of school attended was important within the survey being private, public, and parochial. The findings of this investigation purport that blacks are more likely than whites to be concerned about school violence and safety. Schools with an inability to provide a safe learning environment for students may experience adverse outcomes regarding students' academic …

The Influence Of Power Dynamics On The Israeli-Palestinian Ethos Of Conflict, Bryan Turkel 9842267

CMC Senior Theses

The study of intractable conflicts has risen in recent years particularly with the work of Daniel Bar-Tal’s work on the ethos of conflict. The ethos of conflict is an original psychological concept that captures the collective societal mindset of cultures locked in intractable conflicts and examines the various factors that keep groups in conflict or help them towards peace. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is arguably the most researched, publicized, and discussed intractable conflict in history. The purpose of this paper is to first examine the foundation of that intractable conflict through the lens of Bar-Tal’s theory and apply it once more …

Stereotype Threat And Racial Differences In Citizens’ Experiences Of Police Encounters, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Phillip Atiba Goff

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We conducted 2 studies to investigate how cultural stereotypes that depict Blacks as criminals affect the way Blacks experience encounters with police officers, expecting that such encounters induce Blacks to feel stereotype threat (i.e., concern about being judged and treated unfairly by police because of the stereotype). In Study 1, we asked Black and White participants to report how they feel when interacting with police officers in general. As predicted, Blacks, but not Whites, reported concern that police officers stereotype them as criminals simply because of their race. In addition, this effect was found for Black men but not Black …

Taking The Victim Out Of Sexual Assault: The Effect Of Self-Compassion On Sexual Assault Survivors, Stephanie Cazeau

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-compassion is defined as the ability to treat oneself kindly following perceived failures and/or painful events; this construct is characterized by three components: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness (Neff, 2003). Although some people may naturally be more self-compassionate than others, previous self-compassion manipulations have shown that self-compassion is a mindset that can be taught. Several short-term self-compassion inductions have been published (Adams & Leary, 2007; Breines & Chen, 2012; Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, & Hancock, 2007) showing that such inductions lead to more positive emotional and behavioral outcomes. The purpose of this research study was to determine whether a short …

Adapting To Water Scarcity: Effects Of Irrigation Management, Andrew Provenzano

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In developing countries, farmers are dealing with climatic changes by adapting their agricultural practices. Little work has investigated the direct impact of structural variables (e.g., central vs. local management of irrigation water, location of village), psychological variables (e.g., risk perceptions, self-efficacy), and adaptation on crop yield. We tested a psychology-based model that focused on risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs by longitudinally surveying 278 Sri Lankan rice farmers. We assessed risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs before the major paddy-growing season and measured whether farmers performed adaptations as well as their paddy yield/acre after the season. The model significantly predicted more than …

Self-Monitoring And Romantic Relationships: Individual Differences In Romantic Jealousy, Tiffany Lucille Andolina

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To extend the research on self-monitoring and romantic relationships, we explored the connection between self-monitoring and romantic jealousy using a between-subjects design. We hypothesized high self-monitors (like men) would find sexual infidelity more distressing than emotional infidelity, whereas low self-monitors (like women) would find emotional infidelity more distressing than sexual infidelity. Participants completed the 25-item Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974) and 6 hypothetical infidelity scenarios (Buss et al., 1999). To statistically control for third variables, participants also completed the 11-item Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (Gangestad & Simpson, 1991). Although we found a main effect for self-monitoring in romantic jealousy, these results did …

Understanding The Complexity Of Attitudes Toward Public Education: Predicting The Views Of Teachers And Parents In France And In The United States Based On Social And Cultural Factors, Madeleine Wills

Scripps Senior Theses

Extending prior research related to attitude development and intra-attitudinal consistency, the current study aims to evaluate various factors that predict attitudes toward public education and understand how they impact the direction and consistency of participants’ attitudes. In an effort to develop our knowledge of the factors that predict these attitudes among members of differing populations, the researcher will administer surveys that assess the three components of participants’ attitudes as well as the factors that predict them to public school teachers and parents of students in the United States (US) and in France. It is predicted that considerations like social identity …

An Exploration Of Social Connectedness As A Predictor Of Quality Of Life In Acquired Brain Injury Survivors, Jennifer Oyekanmi

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Research on quality of life in ABI survivors has focused on four domains: psychological, physical, social, and cognitive (Upadhyay, 2007). Social relationships, in particular, can help ABI survivors more effectively cope with changes in their lives, help maintain a healthy outlook, and can help with seeking further understanding of the consequences of sustaining a ABI (Hibbard et al, 2002). The current study sought to examine if social connectedness is predictive of quality of life in ABI survivors. Participants were 71 individuals who have sustained a ABI and who currently or in the past participated in a long term rehabilitation program. …

I Can Dance: Further Investigations Of The Effect Of Dancing Ability On Mate Value, T. Joel Wade, Erin Weinstein, Nina Dalal, Kelsey J. Salerno

Faculty Journal Articles

The present research examined how being described as a dancer affects Black and White men and women’s assessed mate value in two studies. Study 1 examined evaluations of men by women and study 2 examined evaluations of women by men. Based on prior research examining how dancers are perceived and how body movements affect social perceiver’s evaluations of others, men and women described as dancers were expected to receive better ratings. Additionally, race of the individual being assessed was not expected to have any impact on mate value ratings. The results were consistent with the hypotheses. Men and women described …

The Role Of Intelligence In Mating: An Investigation Of How Mating Intelligence Relates To Mate Selection And Mating-Relevant Constructs, Stefanie Gisler, T. Joel Wade

Faculty Journal Articles

Mating intelligence is a fairly new construct with only limited empirical examination. Yet, previous research has found important implications for the construct’s role in mating behavior. The present study sought to expand the existing body of research on mating intelligence by investigating its relationship with self-esteem, self-perceived attractiveness, and mate selection. A sample of 195 participants (83 males and 112 females) completed a survey that incorporated measures of mating intelligence, self-esteem, and self-perceived attractiveness. Additionally, participants were asked to choose between an attractive and unattractive mate to take out on a date. Significant positive relationships between mating intelligence, self-esteem, and …

Explore The Relationship Among Lung Cancer Stigma, Social Support, And Psychosocial Distress, Lisa Maggio

Theses and Dissertations--Nursing

There is longstanding causal relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Smoke-free policies and anti-smoking campaigns have been linked to the decline in smoking acceptance and contribute to the unintended consequence of stigmatizing smokers. Lung cancer is viewed as a self-inflicted disease and patients’ feel judged in a manner different from other cancers affecting social interactions between family, friends, and healthcare professionals. Lung cancer stigma contributes to depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, guilt, shame, blame, threatens a person’s social identity, and limits social support that deeply affects patients and their support persons.

This dissertation contains a review of the literature related …

Coping Methods That Predict Reduced Symptoms Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd), Autumn Van Meter

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Objective: Most individuals experience a stressful event at some point in their lives. A third to half of those individuals will meet criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during their lifetime. Individuals that do not develop PTSD likely have better coping skills regarding trauma. Targeting specific coping strategies that reduce PTSD symptoms helps mental health professionals and providers create interventions and prevention skills.

Method: Eighty-four participants from a university took an online survey. Demographic information were gathered. Questionnaires were given to determine if the participant had experienced one or more traumatic events. Next, a questionnaire that measured the extent that …

Competition, Autonomy, And Prestige: Mechanisms Through Which The Dark Triad Predict Job Satisfaction, Peter K. Jonason, Serena Wee, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Organizational researchers increasingly recognize the need to consider the Dark Triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) when explaining undesirable work outcomes (e.g., counterproductive behaviors). However, little research has focused on the motivations of those who actually hold the traits. In this study (N = 361) we examined how the Dark Triad traits predispose individuals to perceive situations as competitive, prestigious, and comprised of restrictions (i.e., autonomy) which differentially predict job satisfaction. Individuals high on psychopathy and Machiavellianism perceived their workplaces as competitive, whereas individuals high on narcissism perceived their workplaces as prestigious and with fewer restrictions. Sex differences in …

Spirituality, Religious Coping, And Depressive Symptoms In Hospice Patients: A Terror Management Perspective, Janine Siegel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Facing imminent death can be an unremitting problem for hospice patients who lack psychological support for existential concerns that contribute to depressive symptoms and suffering. According to terror management theory, spiritual and religious beliefs are a common means of coping with mortality at the end of life, and few studies have considered how hospice patients feel about their impending death. This was a quantitative, cross-sectional study that examined whether spirituality and religious coping moderated the relationship between imminent death concerns and depressive symptoms in 54 hospice patients. Participants completed a self-administered survey that included the Templer Death Anxiety scale, Brief …

The Effects Of Interview Length On Gender And Personality Related Bias In Job Interviews, Emily Condon

Scripps Senior Theses

The proposed study explores the cognitive miser approach to perception formation in job interviews, as well as factors that may motivate people to not act as cognitive misers. Personality type (introverted and extraverted) and gender are characteristics of people that are associated with many stereotypes (Heilman, 2001; Andersen & Klatzky, 1987), and can have a large influence on an employer’s perception of an applicant, particularly when the employer is acting as a cognitive miser. It is hypothesized that in longer interviews, employers will be motivated to not act as cognitive misers, because they have more information about the applicant, have …

Is The Reception Better On A Different Channel? Interpersonal Communication Satisfaction Of Introverts And Extraverts During Face-To-Face Versus Instant Messenger Conversations, Christina S. Whalen

Scripps Senior Theses

Satisfying communication is sometimes hard to come by. Due to differences in social expression and reception, individuals tend to express and receive communication in dissimilar ways, especially within different social contexts. In the present study, the effects of personality and channel of communication on individual and mutual satisfaction after a conversation will be tested. Participants will take a personality test to determine introversion or extraversion. They will then be randomly assigned to conversation pairs which will communicate either through an instant messaging (IM) program or face-to-face (FtF). Satisfaction will be determined using a modified version of the Interpersonal Communication Satisfaction …

Bill 13 (The Accepting Schools Act): Ontario Legislation Mandating Support For Lgbt Students In Publicly-Funded Schools, Renato M. Liboro Jr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Twenty-six key stakeholders from schools in Waterloo Region, Ontario, participated in semi-structured, open-ended interviews for this dissertation. They included students, teachers, school board representatives in administrator and superintendent roles, trustees, and community service providers. This study explored the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth in publicly-funded schools, the effect of those experiences on their mental health and well-being, and the success of strategies, programs, and policies implemented by schools to address LGBT youth issues. It also examined the perspectives of participants on Bill 13, Ontario’s Accepting Schools Act, particularly strengths and weaknesses of the bill in terms …

Changing Theories Of Change: Strategic Shifting In Implicit Theory Endorsement, Scott Leith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

People differ in their implicit theories about the malleability of characteristics such as intelligence and personality. These relatively chronic theories can be experimentally altered, and can be affected by parent or teacher feedback. Little is known about whether people might selectively shift their implicit beliefs in response to salient situational goals. We predicted that, when motivated to reach a desired conclusion, people might subtly shift their implicit theories of change and stability to garner supporting evidence for their desired position. Any motivated context in which a particular lay theory would help people to reach a preferred directional conclusion could elicit …

On Getting Better And Working Hard: Using Improvement As A Heuristic For Judging Effort, Monica El Gamal

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

There is a strong conceptual association between improvement and effort. Therefore, we propose that people tend to use improvement as a heuristic for judging effort in others. Hence, they would perceive greater effort in improved performance records than in non-improved records with superior overall performance. To examine whether people use improvement as a heuristic for effort, we compared judgments of effort investments and trait effort in improved and consistently-strong performance profiles with equivalent recent performance. Across six empirical studies, participants thought that those with improved profiles exerted more effort and were more hardworking than those with consistently-strong profiles, and this …

Defense Against Defensiveness: How Important Personal Values Can Promote More Adaptive Responses To Severe Environmental Threat, Kathryn Schuett

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

People respond defensively to threatening risk information about the future. For example, people may respond with denial to threatening information about environmental consequences, resulting in inaction which ironically increases the risk. The current thesis was designed to examine individuals’ responses to future climate change risk when under different types and levels of threat. We predicted defensive response under threat, but also sought to investigate a factor that might mitigate defensiveness: reflecting on personally important values. In Study 1 we sought to examine individuals’ responses to a climate risk message after they were induced to feel low or high personal control …

The Motivation To Express Prejudice, Patrick S. Forscher, William T.L. Cox, Nicholas Graetz, Patricia G. Devine

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Contemporary prejudice research focuses primarily on people who are motivated to respond without prejudice and the ways in which unintentional bias can cause these people to act inconsistent with this motivation. However, some real-world phenomena (e.g., hate speech, hate crimes) and experimental findings (e.g., Plant & Devine, 2001; 2009) suggest that some expressions of prejudice are intentional. These phenomena and findings are difficult to explain solely from the motivations to respond without prejudice. We argue that some people are motivated to express prejudice, and we develop the motivation to express prejudice (MP) scale to measure this motivation. In seven studies …

Javan Gibbon (Hylobates Moloch) Non-Vocal Social Communication And Gesture Use With Conspecifics, Melanie Bell

All Master's Theses

I explored gestures used by captive Javan gibbons (Hylobates moloch) at the Gibbon Conservation Center (Santa Clarita, CA). I hypothesized that a sender gibbon’s gesture modality would vary with the recipient gibbon’s attentional state and the sender would be equally likely to use all modalities (tactile, visual, actions, and facial expressions) when the recipient was attending (facing the sender), but would use more tactile gestures and actions when the recipient was non-attending (oriented away from the sender). I collected data from 10 individuals using all-occurrences sampling and an ethogram to score behaviors from video recordings. In 1,143 interactions, …

A Comparison Of Chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes) Responses To Caregiver Use Of Positive Reinforcement Training (Prt) And Species-Specific Behaviors (Ssb), Whitney D. Emge

All Master's Theses

The present study compared the effects of positive reinforcement training (PRT) and unstructured interactions (UI) on chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) behavior. In the PRT condition, a caregiver interacted with a chimpanzee to condition behaviors for 10 min. In the UI condition, a caregiver interacted without PRT for 10 min. Participants were five chimpanzees in a sanctuary setting. Chimpanzees were also videotaped for 10 min after trials (PTP) and for 10 min in a matched control (MC) period on a different day. From these videotapes experimenters coded chimpanzee behaviors and calculated durations in behavioral contexts. Chimpanzees spent a significantly higher …

Warmth And Competence Perceptions Of Female Job Candidates: Who Gets Hired?, Laura E. Campbell

CMC Senior Theses

This study explores how warmth and competence perceptions affect hireability of a female job candidate. The mixed model of stereotype content identifies warmth and competence as the two basic dimensions of person-perception, and research has shown a compensatory relationship between these two dimensions, especially for women. This study explores this compensatory effect for women in a hiring situation. Two samples, one of college students (n = 301) and another of MTurk participants (n = 256), read a description of a female job candidate of either high or low competence and either high, low, or no mention of warmth, …